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oh damn hip-hop misogyny

but as the discussion grows, continues, permeates, i'm realizing that hip-hop just like everything else is often conflicted and full of contradictions

for instance, peep lil jon's lyrics from his latest collab slow jam with usher and luda, "lovers and friends" - not so misogynystic eh?

i'm inclined to say i like the song - kinda' takes me back - i'd love to hear the instrumentals only on this joint - it's like listening to the force mds of "Tears" and "Tender Love" fame

I's been know you fo' a long time (shawty),
But fuckin' never crossed my mind (shawty),
But tonight, I seen sumthin' in ya (shawty),
That made me wanna get wit 'cha (shawty),
But you ain't been nuttin' but a friend to me (shawty),
And a nigga never ever dreamed to be (shawty),
Up in here, kissin', huggin', squeezin', touchin' (shawty),
Up in the bathtub, rub-a-dubbin' (shawty),
Are you sure you wanna go this route? (shawty),
Let a nigga know before I pull it out (shawty),
I would never ever cross the line (shawty),
Shawty, let me hit ya to me one mo' time...one mo' time...

Hip Hop Panel at the W New York Next Monday

WHO: Fab 5 Freddy, Charlie Ahearn, and Afrika Bambaataa

WHAT: A panel made up of hip-hop originators Fab 5 Freddy, Charlie Ahearn, and Afrika Bambaataa discuss the transition of hip-hop from the fringe culture to the mainstream. Join them at the W New York as they speak on how small groups of kids can create a cultural phenomenon. This event is part of W Hotels’ “Adventures in Wonderland,” a series of events over the next six months taking place at W Hotels in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. The events will feature experts from a wide range of fields including music, film, beauty, fashion and literature.

JOHH asks: “Hip-hop in Education: Still Finding Its Way”

The Scholar’s Cipher is a recurring article in the Journal of Hip-hop where we survey the Hip-hop community, educators and practitioners, on a particular issue pertaining to Hip-hop and academia. In our inaugural issue, we have chosen to pose the question: “Hip-hop in Education: Still Finding Its Way” Many schools have courses which use Hiphop as a secondary topic (i.e. Marketing and Hip-hop), and increasingly full classes on Hip-hop have sprouted up in African-American Studies, Sociology, English (to name a few) departments across the nation. In this article, we hope to highlight the progress of Hip-hop in academia.

Please answer the following questions in 2 to 3 sentences each. Please respond via email
to dru@johh.org. We ask you respond by December 1, 2004.

Background Info:
Name
E-Mail
Website
School/Organization
Courses you have taught on Hip-hop (where)
Courses you have taken on Hip-hop (where)

1. What qualifies the inclusion of Hip-hop culture as a viable topic of study in education? Your answer may address all levels of education or a particular level (i.e. college)

2. How have you included Hip-hop in your academic scholarship (teaching or research)?

3. Should bounds be placed on how Hip-hop is used in the classroom? Are their topics native to Hip-hop which are inappropriate for study?

4. What was your first educational experience (as a student or teacher) involving Hip-hop?

5. In terms of student engagement, how does the inclusion of Hip-hop change the classroom dynamic?

6. If someone were starting a Hip-hip library, what Hip-hop book, CD, and film would you recommend they start their collection with?

feminism and hip hop conference

In today’s increasingly mediated environment hip hop remains the most pronounced cultural identifier for young Americans regardless of gender, class or ethnicity. Alongside its various aesthetic contributions, the culture operates as a springboard for discourse surrounding the politics, desires, and activities of today’s youth and young adults. And while a substantial literature has emerged detailing the history and the current cultural domination of hip hop, there has also developed substantial writing and some research warning of the possible negative impact of hip hop culture on young African Americans, stemming from its focus and promotion of sex, drugs, crime, misogyny, consumerism and nihilism. It has been argued by commentators and casual observers that the imagery and lyrics of popular rap music and videos normalizes or even promotes the degradation of women, especially Black women. And while such opinions are expressed readily in newspapers, magazines and general conversation, there has existed little opportunity for extended discussion, research and debate to seriously explore such claims.

The Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture has decided to host this national conference on the topic of hip hop and feminism as an attempt to provide the needed space for debate and discussion about the impact of hip hop culture on the sexual, gender and racial understandings of young people around the world. This conference will provide a forum for scholars, students, artists, activists, community members and leaders, and members of the media interested in analyzing the relevancy of a feminist agenda among today’s hip hop generation. This event will also highlight the work of scholars, activists and artists across the country who are fighting for progressive representations of women in hip hop culture as they reshape feminist discourse and politics.

This event is free and open to the public. Pre-registration is required. The deadline for registration is March 7, 2005. For additional information about the conference contact the Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture at (773) 702-8063 or csrpc@uchicago.edu. Persons with disabilities who may need assistance should contact the Center in advance of the event.

who's gonna' take the weight?

"Women in the hip-hop industry- the female publicists, stylists, managers, editor-in-chiefs, and label heads don't speak against the treatment of their sisters in our songs and videos because they're making good money off it. Boom, I said it."

And I'm not even going to take this personal duke. I'm grown folk remember.

But for the rest of all y'all, let's put this in historical perspective.

Hashim lambastes the media, and especially females in the hip-hop media for not speaking out. OK, point well taken on one hand. But on another - there's so much history to this entire thing. History on the women who have spoken out. History on how misogyny in hip-hop is related to America's overall misogyny and also related to American's race problem. Hopefully I needn't explain the linkages here. If I do, then email me and I will - to you dear reader, personally.

Just for perspective --- and so this doesn't become about me getting on Hashim for his getting on women-of-color in the media and who work in urban-related companies (cuz I think that's who he is talking about) --- I just wanna clear my throat first - ahem - cough - cough. There is so much right about what he's saying that it hurts me internally. Yet as was asked before, where are the men who write about hip-hop to back us up? Duke, if man x is beating on me, who you think he's going to respect more when one of us asks him to stop - me - or you? He's beating on me, he doesn't care what I have to say. He probably doesn't care what you have to say either, b/c you remind him of his very own self, and something he doesn't like about him self or his lot in America is causing him to beat on me in the first place.

Besides don't you know that more white people purchase and support hip-hop music and its artists than black folx do? Yeah, ok, there's more of 'em here in America anyway - so I guess that's just how the percentages add up. But what are they thinking when they hear lyrics like the ones that Julianne mentioned in her post? OK, I'm off on a tangent here - but is it really an overwhelming number of black women purchasing the albums that promote violence against women? Is there really an overwhelming majority of black women doing the chickenhead in the club to these tracks? I don't have the figures so I can't really say, but a good damn guess is "NO." And I still have a love/hate affair with loads of this ish myself, but that's why I teach about it and write about. Oh yeah, I'm going to listen to it, because I want to study what's being said. That's like somebody saying b/c they didn't vote for Bush, they're never gonna' listen to one of his press conferences on c-span or cnn or some stoopid shit like that. In the words of Lil' Jon, "Yeah, ok, WHAT!"

I no longer digress here, b/c my post didn't initially start out this way. It started with my wanting to cite some references and make mention of two entire books dedicated to this issue. And that's b/c I feel like loads of folks still don't know that information like this is out there.

And of course there are a slew of essays, but I'll just mention a few. If you're a student or a journalist, I'm sure you have Lexis Nexis or some other electronic research tool and can get at these mad quick.

1. "When Black Feminism Faces the Music and the Music is Rap." by Michelle Wallace appeared in the New York Times 29 July 1990,

2. "It's My Thang And I'll Swing It The Way That I Feel," by Imani Perry appeared in Gender, Race and Class in Media: A Text-Reader, eds. Gail Dines, and Jean M. Humez. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1995.

And the mother of all these writings, in my eyes that is -and I post it in its entirety so you can't say you never read it - and because it is also quite in line with my own views.

Here it is, BAM:

"Misogyny, gangsta rap, and The Piano," by bell hooks, ZMagazine, February 1994

For the past several months white mainstream media has been calling me to hear my views on gangsta rap. Whether major television networks, or small independent radio shows, they seek me out for the black and feminist "take" on the issue. After I have my say, I am never called back, never invited to do the television shows or the radio spots. I suspect they call, confident that when we talk they will hear the hardcore "feminist" trash of gangsta rap. When they encounter instead the hardcore feminist critique of white supremacist capitalist patriarchy, they lose interest.

To white dominated mass media, the controversy over gangsta rap makes great spectacle. Besides the exploitation of these issues to attract audiences, a central motivation for highlighting gangsta rap continues to be the sensationalist drama of demonizing black youth culture in general and the contributions of young black men in particular. It is a contemporary remake of "Birth of a Nation" only this time we are encouraged to believe it is not just vulnerable white womanhood that risks destruction by black hands but everyone. When I counter this demonization of black males by insisting that gangsta rap does not appear in a cultural vacuum, but, rather, is expressive of the cultural crossing, mixings, and engagement of black youth culture with the values, attitudes, and concerns of the white majority, some folks stop listening.

The sexist, misogynist, patriarchal ways of thinking and behaving that are glorified in gangsta rap are a reflection of the prevailing values in our society, values created and sustained by white supremacist capitalist patriarchy. As the crudest and most brutal expression of sexism, misogynistic attitudes tend to be portrayed by the dominant culture as an expression of male deviance. In reality they are part of a sexist continuum, necessary for the maintenance of patriarchal social order. While patriarchy and sexism continue to be the political and cultural norm in our society, feminist movement has created a climate where crude expressions of male domination are called into question, especially if they are made by men in power. It is useful to think of misogyny as a field that must be labored in and maintained both to sustain patriarchy but also to serve as an ideological anti-feminist backlash. And what better group to labor on this "plantation" than young black men.

To see gangsta rap as a reflection of dominant values in our culture rather than as an aberrant "pathological" standpoint does not mean that a rigorous feminist critique of the sexist and misogyny expressed in this music is not needed. Without a doubt black males, young and old, must be held politically accountable for their sexism. Yet this critique must always be contextualized or we risk making it appear that the behaviors this thinking supports and condones,--rape, male violence against women, etc.-- is a black male thing. And this is what is happening. Young black males are forced to take the "heat" for encouraging, via their music, the hatred of and violence against women that is a central core of patriarchy.

Witness the recent piece by Brent Staples in the "New York Times" titled "The Politics of Gangster Rap: A Music Celebrating Murder and Misogyny." Defining the turf Staples writes: "For those who haven't caught up, gangster rap is that wildly successful music in which all women are `bitches' and `whores' and young men kill each other for sport." No mention of white supremacist capitalist patriarchy in this piece, not a word about the cultural context that would need to exist for young males to be socialized to think differently about gender. Staples assumes that black males are writing their lyrics off in the "jungle," away from the impact of mainstream socialization and desire. At no point in his piece does he ask why huge audiences, especially young white male consumers, are so turned on by this music, by the misogyny and sexism, by the brutality? Where is the anger and rage at females expressed in this music coming from, the glorification of all acts of violence? These are the difficult questions that Staples feels no need to answer.

One cannot answer them honestly without placing accountability on larger structures of domination and the individuals (often white, usually male but not always) who are hierarchically placed to maintain and perpetuate the values that uphold these exploitative and oppressive systems. That means taking a critical looking at the politics of hedonistic consumerism, the values of the men and women who produce gangsta rap. It would mean considering the seduction of young black males who find that they can make more money producing lyrics that promote violence, sexism, and misogyny than with any other content. How many disenfranchised black males would not surrender to expressing virulent forms of sexism, if they knew the rewards would be unprecedented material power and fame?

More than anything gangsta rap celebrates the world of the "material, " the dog-eat-dog world where you do what you gotta do to make it. In this world view killing is necessary for survival. Significantly, the logic here is a crude expression of the logic of white supremacist capitalist patriarchy. In his new book "Sexy Dressing, Etc." privileged white male law professor Duncan Kennedy gives what he calls "a set of general characterizations of U. S. culture" explaining that, "It is individual (cowboys), material (gangsters) and philistine." Using this general description of mainstream culture would lead us to place "gangsta rap" not on the margins of what this nation is about, but at the center. Rather than being viewed as a subversion or disruption of the norm we would need to see it as an embodiment of the norm.

That viewpoint was graphically highlighted in the film "Menace To Society" which dramatized not only young black males killing for sport, but also mass audiences voyeuristically watching and, in many cases, "enjoying" the kill. Significantly, at one point in the movie we see that the young black males have learned their "gangsta" values from watching television and movies--shows where white male gangsters are center stage. This scene undermines any notion of "essentialist" blackness that would have viewers believe the gangsterism these young black males embraced emerged from some unique black cultural experience.

When I interviewed rap artist Ice Cube for "Spin" magazine last year, he talked about the importance of respecting black women and communication across gender. He spoke against male violence against women, even as he lapsed into a justification for anti- woman rap lyrics by insisting on the madonna/whore split where some females "carry" themselves in a manner that determines how they will be treated. When this interview was published, it was cut to nothing. It was a mass media set-up. Folks (mostly white and male) had thought if the hardcore feminist talked with the hardened black man, sparks would fly; there would be a knock-down drag out spectacle. When Brother Cube and I talked to each other with respect about the political, spiritual, and emotional self- determination of black people, it did not make good copy. Clearly folks at the magazine did not get the darky show they were looking for.

After this conversation, and talking with rappers and folks who listen to rap, it became clear that while black male sexism is a serious problem in our communities and in black music, some of the more misogynist lyrics were there to stir up controversy and appeal to audiences. Nowhere is this more evident that in Snoop Doggy Dogg's record "Doggystyle". A black male music and cultural critic called me to ask if I had checked this image out; to share that for one of the first times in his music buying life he felt he was seeing an image so offensive in its sexism and misogyny that he did not want to take that image home. That image (complete with doghouse, beware the dog sign, with a naked black female head in a doghouse, naked butt sticking out) was reproduced, "uncritically," in the November 29, 1993 issue of "Time" magazine. The positive music review of this album, written by Christopher John Farley, is titled "Gangsta Rap, Doggystyle" makes no mention of sexism and misogyny, makes no reference to the cover. I wonder if a naked white female body had been inside the doghouse, presumably waiting to be fucked from behind, if "Time" would have reproduced an image of the cover along with their review. When I see the pornographic cartoon that graces the cover of "Doggystyle," I do not think simply about the sexism and misogyny of young black men, I think about the sexist and misogynist politics of the powerful white adult men and women (and folks of color) who helped produce and market this album.

In her book "Misogynies" Joan Smith shares her sense that while most folks are willing to acknowledge unfair treatment of women, discrimination on the basis of gender, they are usually reluctant to admit that hatred of women is encouraged because it helps maintain the structure of male dominance. Smith suggests: "Misogyny wears many guises, reveals itself in different forms which are dictated by class, wealth, education, race, religion and other factors, but its chief characteristic is its pervasiveness." This point reverberated in my mind when I saw Jane Campion's widely acclaimed film "The Piano" which I saw in the midst of mass media focus on sexism and misogyny in "gangsta rap." I had been told by many friends in the art world that this was "an incredible film, a truly compelling love story etc." Their responses were echoed by numerous positive reviews. No one speaking about this film mentions misogyny and sexism or white supremacist capitalist patriarchy.

The 19th century world of the white invasion of New Zealand is utterly romanticized in this film (complete with docile happy darkies--Maori natives--who appear to have not a care in the world). And when the film suggests they care about white colonizers digging up the graves of their dead ancestors, it is the sympathetic poor white male who comes to the rescue. Just as the conquest of natives and lands is glamorized in this film, so is the conquest of femininity, personified by white womanhood, by the pale speechless corpse-like Scotswoman, Ada, who journeys into this dark wilderness because her father has arranged for her to marry the white colonizer Stewart. Although mute, Ada expresses her artistic ability, the intensity of her vision and feelings through piano playing. This passion attracts Baines, the illiterate white settler who wears the facial tattoos of the Maori--an act of appropriation that makes him (like the traditional figure of Tarzan) appear both dangerous and romantic. He is Norman Mailer's "white negro," seducing Ada by promising to return the piano that Steward has exchanged with him for land. The film leads us to believe that Ada's passionate piano playing has been a substitution for repressed eroticism. When she learns to let herself go sexually, she ceases to need the piano. We watch the passionate climax of Baines seduction as she willingly seeks him sexually. And we watch her husband Stewart in the role of voyeur, standing with dog outside the cabin where they fuck, voyeuristically consuming their pleasure. Rather than being turned off by her love for Baines, it appears to excite Stewart's passion; he longs to possess her all the more. Unable to win her back from Baines, he expresses his rage, rooted in misogyny and sexism, by physically attacking her and chopping off her finger with an ax. This act of male violence takes place with Ada's daughter, Flora, as a witness. Though traumatized by the violenceshe witnesses, she is still about to follow the white male patriarch's orders and take the bloody finger to Baines, alongwith the message that each time he sees Ada she will suffer physical mutilation.

Violence against land, natives, and women in this film, unlike that of gangsta rap, is portrayed uncritically, as though it is "natural," the inevitable climax of conflicting passions. The outcome of this violence is positive. Ultimately, the film suggests Stewart's rage was only an expression of irrational sexual jealousy, that he comes to his senses and is able to see "reason." In keeping with male exchange of women, he gives Ada and Flora to Baines. They leave the wilderness. On the voyage home Ada demands that her piano be thrown overboard because it is "soiled," tainted with horrible memories. Surrendering it she lets go of her longing to display passion through artistic expression. A nuclear family now, Baines, Ada, and Flora resettle and live happily-ever-after. Suddenly, patriarchal order is restored. Ada becomes a modest wife, wearing a veil over her mouth so that no one will see her lips struggling to speak words. Flora has no memory of trauma and is a happy child turning somersaults. Baines is in charge, even making Ada a new finger.

"The Piano "seduces and excites audiences with its uncritical portrayal of sexism and misogyny. Reviewers and audiences alike seem to assume that Campion's gender, as well as her breaking of traditional boundaries that inhibit the advancement of women in film, indicate that her work expresses a feminist standpoint. And, indeed, she does employ feminist "tropes," even as her work betrays feminist visions of female actualization, celebrates and eroticizes male domination. In Smith's discussion of misogyny she emphasizes that woman-hating is not solely the province of men: "We are all exposed to the prevailing ideology of our culture, and some women learn early on that they can prosper by aping the misogyny of men; these are the women who win provisional favor by denigrating other women, by playing on male prejudices, and by acting the `man's woman'." Since this is not a documentary film that needs to remain faithful to the ethos of its historical setting, why is it that Campion does not resolve Ada's conflicts by providing us with an imaginary landscape where a woman can express passionate artistic commitment and find fulfillment in a passionate relationship? This would be no more far-fetched than her cinematic portrayal of Ada's miraculous transformation from muteness into speech. Ultimately, Campion's "The Piano" advances the sexist assumption that heterosexual women will give up artistic practice to find "true love." That "positive" surrender is encouraged by the "romantic" portrayal of sexism and misogyny.

While I do not think that young black male rappers have been rushing in droves to see "The Piano", there is a bond between those folks involved with high culture who celebrate and condone the sexist ideas and values upheld in this film and those who celebrate and condone "gangsta rap." Certainly Kennedy's description of the United States as a "cowboy, gangster, philistine" culture would also accurately describe the culture evoked in "The Piano". Popular movies that are seen by young black males, for example "Indecent Proposal, MadDog and Glory, True Romance", and "One False Move", all eroticize male domination expressed via the exchange of women, as well as the subjugation of other men, through brutal violence.

Contrary to a racist white imagination which assumes that most young black males, especially those who are poor, live in a self- created cultural vacuum, uninfluenced by mainstream, cultural values, it is the application of those values, largely learned through passive uncritical consumption of mass media, that is revealed in "gangsta rap." Brent Staples is willing to challenge the notion that "urban primitivism is romantic" when it suggests that black males become "real men" by displaying the will to do violence, yet he remains resolutely silent about that world of privileged white culture that has historically romanticized primitivism, and eroticized male violence. Contemporary films like "Reservoir Dogs" and "The Bad Lieutenant" celebrate urban primitivism and many less well done films ("Trespass, Rising Sun") create and/or exploit the cultural demand for depictions of hardcore blacks who are willing to kill for sport.

To take "gangsta rap" to task for its sexism and misogyny while critically accepting and perpetuating those expressions of that ideology which reflect bourgeois standards (no rawness, no vulgarity) is not to call for a transformation of the culture of patriarchy. Ironically, many black male ministers, themselves sexist and misogynist, are leading the attacks against gangsta rap. Like the mainstream world that supports white supremacist capitalist patriarchy, they are most concerned with calling attention to the vulgar obscene portrayals of women to advance the cause of censorship. For them, rethinking and challenging sexism, both in the dominant culture and in black life, is not the issue.

Mainstream white culture is not concerned about black male sexism and misogyny, particularly when it is unleashed against black women and children. It is concerned when young white consumers utilize black popular culture to disrupt bourgeois values. Whether it be the young white boy who expresses his rage at his mother by aping black male vernacular speech (a true story) or the masses of young white males (and middle class men of color) seeking to throw off the constraints of bourgeois bondage who actively assert in their domestic households via acts of aggression their rejection of the call to be "civilized. " These are the audiences who feel such a desperate need for gangsta rap. It is much easier to attack gangsta rap than to confront the culture that produces that need.

Gangsta rap is part of the anti-feminist backlash that is the rage right now. When young black males labor in the plantations of misogyny and sexism to produce gangsta rap, their right to speak this violence and be materially rewarded is extended to them by white supremacist capitalist patriarchy. Far from being an expression of their "manhood," it is an expression of their own subjugation and humiliation by more powerful, less visible forces of patriarchal gangsterism. They give voice to the brutal raw anger and rage against women that it is taboo for "civilized" adult men to speak. No wonder then that they have the task of tutoring the young, teaching them to eroticize and enjoy the brutal expressions of that rage (teaching them language and acts) before they learn to cloak it in middle-class decorum or Robert Bly style reclaimings of lost manhood. The tragedy for young black males is that they are so easily dunned by a vision of manhood that can only lead to their destruction.

Feminist critiques of the sexism and misogyny in gangsta rap, and in all aspects of popular culture, must continue to be bold and fierce. Black females must not be duped into supporting shit that hurts us under the guise of standing beside our men. If black men are betraying us through acts of male violence, we save ourselves and the race by resisting. Yet, our feminist critiques of black male sexism fail as meaningful political intervention if they seek to demonize black males, and do not recognize that our revolutionary work is to transform white supremacist capitalist patriarchy in the multiple areas of our lives where it is made manifest, whether in gangsta rap, the black church, or the Clinton administration.

blogfam list update

in order to save myself from doing extra work and going through manually to see which blogs are still active and which ones aren't, i've finally decided to let bloglines power my blogfam list. originally, blogfam meant my regular reads, or folks whose blogs resonated with me - now it's just all the main blogs that show up in my main blogs folder on bloglines. unfortunately, if you were once on my blogfam list, but never got yourself into the RSS, RDF, XML, Atom-feed age, you got dropped.

a moment of narcissism

what happened to the blogship?

Man Eric set that blogship up to be a clearing house for all hip hop related blogs and it appears that no one has posted there since the summer. I told cats that having to ping was going to be a problem. A group blog might've been an easier effort, but even then how do you get folks to want to post in two places?

I'm thinking there's got to be a better solution. I'm noticing that most of my blog fam, lots of you folx putting it down in this space since '01 and '02 have kind of slacked off a bit, but there's a lot of new blog hustlas stepping up. Somehow I keep thinking there have gots to be ways to do these group efforts. I know Hashim has it going on with both hiphopblogs and mixtapes etc, but a community of bloggers in this space is what I still haven't really seen. In fact, I've seen more blog battles than anything else, especially when it comes to some of these newer hip hop bloggers.

Is hip hop blogging dead? Ok, perhaps not in jay's world over there at hiphopmusic, who is still the most prolific hip-hop blogger of all - but on the real, other than these hip-hop freelance writers who are now all profilin' all over the blogoverse - who is really, really doing this damn thing anymore?

Ok, I know I'm going to get flamed for this one. But who cares. Perhaps it's b/c I am just not representing myself anymore and so I'm projecting or something. Whatever. Go cry to your mama.

another hip hop blog

now clyde smith of hip hop logic has started prohiphip, a blog about the business of hip-hop. or should i say a hip-hop business news blog. yo clyde, if you want to make money off that ish - holla at a sistah - i see the commercial viability of your endeavors.

Live From LA

Hassan Johnson, better known as Wee-Bey from The Wire sending you greetings from La La land. Be sure to check out the VIBE Awards on UPN Nov. 16. And fans can vote for the Livest City Award @ vibe.com/awards.

the only way to listen to music

I don't know how to contain myself. First WIRED hits us off with THE WIRED CD, a CD distributed under a creative commons license. Then Apples iTunes Music Store offers us STREET OFFICIAL MIXTAPE, VOL1, the first completely legal, free mixtape for download, along with the tracks that inspired it. This joint was made with independent record label material and includes joints from KRS-ONE, will.i.am, Planet Asia, Masta Ace, and more. Go cop that ish on the free tip at the Apple iTunes Music Store!

What are the most pressing issues facing hip-hop today? How has hip-hop evolved? Listen to hip-hop scholars Mark Anthony Neal and Murray Forman, authors of "That’s the Joint! The Hip-Hop Studies Reader", address hip-hop history, identity, the politics of the hip-hop nation and the debates of street authenticity.

A film screening of the hip-hop documentary
“Five Sides of a Coin” to follow.

die comment spam die

OK, I will no longer have to talk about Comment Spam. Thanks to Donald's genius, my MT has been upgraded and is configured to stop comment spam in its tracks. Perhaps I'll start blogging a lil' more regularly again, as I don't have to spend all my time with my MT Blacklist - though it's still in effect, I have so many more efficient means of guarding my blog against spammers. Again, thanks to the Donald.

Also, if I don't audioblog soon, you might see a link for a radioblog in the next week or so.

But of course the most pressing concern of the day is how did the votes tally?